Visa Complications for Confucius Institutes

Submitted by Scott Jaschik on May 22, 2012 - 3:00am

New State Department guidance[1] could complicate some activities at Confucius Institutes, which operate on many American college and university campuses. The guidance says that the J-1 visa program, through which many scholars from China come to the institutes, does not permit any teaching in elementary and secondary schools (which some scholars have done). Further, the guidance says that Chinese language courses taught at the institutes must be part of colleges' foreign language offerings or separately accredited. Some of the institutes may not meet those criteria. Many colleges have welcomed the institutes for the infusion of Chinese programming they bring to campuses, while others worry[2] about ties to the Chinese government and an emphasis on non-controversial topics.